This invention relates to fluid flow manifolds for delivering fluid to a plurality of outlets.
The invention has particular, but not exclusive application, to ore sorting apparatus of the type in which ore rocks are projected in free flight past an array of fluid blast nozzles which deliver fluid jets or blasts of short duration to deflect selected rocks from the free flight trajectory so that the deflected and undeflected rocks can be collected in separate bins. In apparatus of this type a large number of closely spaced nozzles may be required and the flow to each nozzle must be individually controlled by a separate valve. It then becomes difficult to position all of the valves adjacent the nozzles because of the bulk of the valves and it is usual to mount the valves on a separate frame and to connect them to the nozzles by flexible piping. This results in a complicated entanglement of piping. Moreover, at least some of the valves will be located at varying distances from their respective nozzles whereas in order to ensure accurate timing of the fluid jet blasts and to minimise friction losses it would be most desirable to have an arrangement in which the delivery pipe from the valves to the nozzles were all of equal length and as short as possible. The present invention provides a novel type of fluid flow manifold which enables this to be achieved.
Although the invention has been devised in order to overcome the above problem in rock sorting apparatus it will be appreciated that there are other applications in which fluid must be delivered through individual valves to a plurality of outlets and it is to be understood that the manifold provided by the present invention may be used in such other applications.